Beliefs and myths coming down to us from antiquity have shown mankind's relationship with the egg to be a very profound one. This is well expressed in the Latin Proverb Omne Vivum Exovo, translated as "all life comes from an egg." Examples of this belief come from all around the world. In Europe it was believed that eggs laid on Good Friday, if kept for a hundred years, would have their yolks turned into diamonds.
Of course, one of the most well-known manifestations of beliefs surrounding the egg arises in the celebration of Easter. It has been speculated that missionaries or Knights of the Crusades were first responsible for bringing the coloring of eggs westward, a tradition that continues to this day.
Easter egg games popularized a few hundred years ago still delight children around the world. A favorite game has been rolling an Easter egg on a field, crashing them into each other until only one unbroken egg remains. Two of the best known locations for Easter egg games are Central Park in New York City and on the lawn of the White House on Easter Monday.
The original site of the Easter Monday Presidential egg roll was the grounds of the United States Capital during the administration of President Andrew Johnson. Although a small group of egg rollers were reported on the White House grounds under the presidency of General Ulysses S. Grant, the majority of egg rolling activity and Easter picnics took place at the capital. However, after Easter Monday activities took their toll on the capital grounds, Easter egg rolling was moved to the south lawn of the White House under the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. Successive presidents have continued the tradition, and the event has been held on the south lawn ever since.
From the mythology and tradition of imbuing the egg, all forms of fanciful eggs have been hatched. Probably the most famous decorative eggs in the world are the jeweled Faberge eggs which are considered priceless for their ornate design and craftsmanship.
While Faberge eggs may be highly desirable and sought after by collectors, eggs also occupy a nitch in the children's toy market. Plastic eggs which split into two halves can hold candy or toys which fit inside the assembled egg. So, toy eggs are not only popular during holiday seasons such as Easter, but are popular with children and, therefore, marketable in the toy industry year round. One type of toy egg is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,424,538 in which a plurality of hollow eggs of increasing size and having a pair of body half sections fit inside each other with the outermost egg depicting the image of a fanciful figure such as a fairy tale character. Such toy eggs are now commonly sold in bags of loosely packaged products.
Chicken eggs are packaged in egg cartons of various sizes which accommodate different numbers of eggs, i.e., cartons with six, twelve, or eighteen pockets. Chicken egg cartons known in the art are made from a variety of materials, including cardboard and foamed polystyrene. U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,049 describes an egg carton with an entirely transparent rigid plastic top section and a foamed plastic bottom section.